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COVID-19: New tools help SMEs get government support

By: Rachel Miller

Date: 14 April 2020

The Coronavirus Government Support Eligibility Checker helps businesses to find out which schemes they are eligible for.

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has partnered with business banking platform Tide to launch a Coronavirus Government Support Eligibility Checkerto help SMEs get access to the financial aid they need during the coronavirus crisis. The new tool is free to use on the FSB website and on the Tide website.

Tide reports that a huge number of its 150,000 SME business owners are confused about the financial support the government has announced, what they are eligible for and how they can apply. The Coronavirus Government Support Eligibility Checker will help SMEs to identify the financial help available to them, as well as pointing them in the right direction to access that support.

Tide's research has also revealed that 75% of UK SMEs had already been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 crisis by the end of March 2020; 24% say that their revenue has dropped by 100% since the government lockdown came into force.

"The COVID-19 crisis will have a severe and potentially long-term impact on the UK's SME community and so it is crucial that we do all we can to help as many small businesses weather this storm as possible," said Tide ceo Oliver Prill.

"The UK government has announced a very generous package of measures to give financial support to SMEs, however the distribution of these funds is unclear and is not happening quickly enough … we hope the COVID-19 Business Support Finder will help business owners to get the help they need."